Hungary to build second line of fence along its border with Sebria

After the government's first fence was erected in the summer of 2015, immigration to and transit through Hungary slowed to a comparative trickle.

Hungary has started building a second layer of security fencing to prevent refugees and migrants from crossing its southern borders, and plans to tighten its asylum law further - despite fierce criticism from major worldwide rights groups.

The government has earmarked 38 billion forints for the fence and containment camps to hold migrants.

The Hungarian government have said a second fence is needed to deal with the surge of migrants expected to reach the country's borders later this year.

A 10-kilometer (6-mile) experimental stretch of the second fence has already been built, some of it equipped with cameras, motion and heat sensors and other surveillance tools.

Lazar said the fence is expected to be completed by the end of spring. "For this reason, we are strengthening the defense of our southern border".

Hungary is making a "mockery" out of the right to asylum, and the European Commission should strongly respond to Budapest's anti-migrant actions, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned the decision. "Using transit zones as detention centers and forcing asylum seekers who are already inside Hungary back to the Serbian side of the razor-wire fence is abusive, pointless and cruel".

His hardline stance diverted the main flow of asylum seekers and heralded a tougher line on the crisis that saw the Balkan states officially close their borders to migrants and refugees last March. Mr Orban says the mostly Muslim refugees from countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan threaten the security and culture of Hungary and Europe.

It follows a bill proposed by the populist Hungarian government which could see refugees and migrants from across the country rounded up and transferred to neighbouring Serbia.

The European Commission opened an investigation into Hungary's asylum legislation in December 2015, but no findings have been made public.

Hungary is also in the midst of suing the European Union for trying to force it to resettle almost 1,200 migrants, joining European Union member states Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland.